Thursday, October 21, 2010

Rypien/Fan Incident Officially Dumbest Thing In The World

By NiNY

It's official. What started out as just another black eye for the league has turned into The Dumbest Thing In the World. The final straw for me was the Canucks players (and their media) asserting that it was an eye-gouge from Wild rogue Brad "Starburst" Staubitz that lasted - get this - 10 SECONDS that put Rypien on a collision course with A&B on a fan.

The moron player who said that? Pathetic loser.

The imbecile who "reported" it? Disgraceful.

Oh, and I wasn't reaching over the hand rail when I called you two a pathetic loser and disgraceful, respectively. But I was clapping. So if you don't like it, fuck you, you pathetic, disgraceful losers.

Even without this latest twist, I was already pretty much over this thing, apart from being nominally interested in how many games Bettman and Campbell give Rypien. The house divided created by the victim's pronouncement that he would be seeking legal counsel had already soaked up the majority of the rest of my care on this topic. My compete level was running dangerously low. I was the Wild going into the dressing room after a good first period. But this eye-gouge bullshit drained the last of it.

This is just dumb at this point. It's been over-baked to the point where a once decent little meat loaf has turned into a blackened, charred, hard-as-hell chunk of irrelevance.

I am literally embarrassed for some of my fellow bloggers. Look, if you want to treat this like it's your big TMZ break, that's your business. But you make it pretty hard to fight the battle against the "Main Stream Media" behemoths when you prance around like a rabid gazelle over so garish a topic. Gaining acceptance with the MSM has never been a flag I've flown. But, it has been for some of you - some of whom have been on a circle jerk bender over this topic since it broke. If you treat your platform like the National Enquirer, expect to be treated like you're one of the hacks that works for....the National Enquirer.

2 comments:

I am not sure who exactly is treating this as their TMZ moment, but since we have covered it more than almost anyone, I can only feel it is partially aimed at us. If not, I apologize for stepping into something I was not intended to be in.

If it was aimed at us, I am sorry you do not feel this is a story. Here is why we feel it is:

1. It happened on our pond, in our building, and it involved "our" fan. If it had happened in Florida, between two teams not name the Minnesota Wild, we would have moved on.

2. Our readers are asking for updates, thus, we provide them.

3. I know you do not feel this is a big moment in time. Anytime a fan is involved in an altercation with a player, it is going to be a big moment in time. Everyone knows the Ty Domi story, the Mike Millbury story, the Ron Artest story. People will now talk about the Rick Rypien story for years to come. As much as you may not like the story, think it is not a big deal, you are of a minority opinion on this.

4. The mainstream guys are still covering it. To be certain, we take a big portion of our lead from what they are doing. Learning from them, since we have the best in the business around here to learn from. If Russo is still reporting on it, you can rest assured it is still a story.

5. Until the verdict comes down, it is a topic of debate. We provide that forum to debate it. To debate it fully, the readers need the facts of the case. Sure, we have contributed a healthy share of opinion, but we are part of the debate, too.

Again, I apologize for stepping in if I was not supposed to. We covered the story heavily, and we will continue to until it is no longer a story. We mean now harm and no foul by doing so, and we are not doing it for cheap clicks or in order to be TMZ. We are trying to do what we do. Bring the story to the readers.

Not to really stick my nose into anything, but compared to other incidents with fans, this was pretty tame I thought. I can't imagine it'll be talked about very often in a few months, except for when it might get listed with other bad interactions between player and fan. Maybe any time Rypien goes to a new place it'll be brought up, but once word of his suspension comes down, that should be the end of it. Except maybe for future Vancouver-at-Minnesota games, I'm sure it'll be a running subplot in that sense for years.

POI

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Nick in New York (NiNY) is just a guy with a computer and a love of hockey. And a wife and two daughters whom he adores. And a decreasing ability to metabolize beer in a way that doesn't, er, add to the bottom line, as it were.

Feel free to toss him an email with any thoughts on the blog, or the sport.

Mason...you don't really want to mess with Mason. He's nasty with the writing skillz. And can drop some ridic culture pulls into his narrative. Lover of haiku.

Mason can be reached at: jaredmas@gmail.com

Did you know that no two zebras' stripes are the same? Well we have a zebra here at HTP, and his name is Doubles. Only he's a hockey zebra - and he's here going to share his great wealth of hockey knowledge from an on-ice official's standpoint with you. Feel free to read him in Chris Rock's voice.